Another
Small Town Poisoned By the Wood Preservative Creosote(Beyond Pesticides, February 26, 2004) The
29-acre site of Wood Treating Inc., a former creosote wood preservative
plant in Picayune, Mississippi, is quietly under investigation by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to become the state’s
next Superfund clean-up site for creosote contamination, according to
the town’s newspaper,
Picayune Item.

Wood Treating, Inc.
was established in Picayune in 1946 and used creosote to coat telephone
poles, reports the town’s newspaper. According to the
article, Jerry Banks of the Mississippi Department of Environmental
Quality hazardous waste division described the company as having “’just
ceased operations in 1999 and closed down and basically walked off and
left the facility’” without cleaning up any of the waste,
chemicals or holding tanks.

Although companies
who contaminate sites are supposed to pay to clean them up, it appears
from the article that the state and federal government will be burdened
with the estimated millions of dollars to clean the site since the company
has already gone out of business. It is expected that such exorbitant
costs, which have already reached $2 million, will slow the pace of
the clean-up.

Creosote is a highly
toxic and hazardous chemical. Based on weighty evidence from occupational
exposures and animal studies, the EPA rates creosote as probable human
carcinogen with the potential to cause birth defects and adversely affect
reproduction. It is also a possible endocrine disruptor that adversely
affects hormonal function. According to the National Institutes of Health,
animal studies of coal tar creosote have induced a wide array of malignant
tumors in the lungs, mammary glands, and trachea as well as other carcinomas
throughout the body.

"I remember
as a child playing in ditches that ran from the plant that had a thick,
black substance oozing from them that smelled like oil,” says
a former resident of Picayune who asked to remain anonymous. “We
were fairly poor, and of course no one ever warned us. In fact,”
he added, “they’re still not warning us.” The black
substance he described matches the description of coal-tar creosote,
which is usually a thick, oily liquid, typically amber to dark brown
in color.

The most common
way for creosote to enter the body is through skin contact with contaminated
soil, which is most likely to occur near facilities where the soil is
not monitored and cleaned. Children are particularly vulnerable to chemical
exposure both because they are more likely to come in regular contact
with soil through play and because their internal organs and neurological
systems are still developing.

Individuals living
or working near wood preserving facilities are exceptionally susceptible
to being exposed to surface water or groundwater. Creosote can enter
the body through rapid absorption into the lungs as an air contaminant,
through the stomach and intestines after ingesting contaminated food
or drinking water, or through the skin after contact with treated wood
or toxic byproducts.

The former resident,
who returns frequently to visit family still living in the town, said
that some people often wondered why miscarriages, cancers and brain
tumors had “clustered around various neighborhoods” throughout
the decades. He also added that there was talk about the 29-acre site
being sold and converted into a housing development.

According to the
U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATDSR), "Hazardous
waste sites are a major source of contamination with creosote."
Brief exposures to large amounts of coal-tar creosote can cause harmful
effects on the skin, eyes, nervous system, and kidneys. Signs of acute
poisoning include salivation, vomiting, headache, dizziness, loss of
reflexes, hypothermia, convulsions, and coma. Death can also occur as
a result of multi-organ system failure.

Components in coal
tar creosote that persist in soil and groundwater can take years to
breakdown. Waste water and sludge from wood preserving facilities is
known as a major source of creosote contamination in surface and groundwater
across the country, particularly because companies that produce creosote-treated
wood release the waste water to the municipal water treatment system.

Creosote made from
coal tar is the most common type of creosote found in hazardous waste
sites. Coal tar creosote, coal tar, and coal tar pitch have been found
in at least 59 of the current or former sites on the EPA Superfund National
Priorities List.

While new EPA restrictions
have decreased the amount of creosote available to move into soil from
wastewater effluents, this still represents the largest source of coal
tar creosote in the environment. According to an ATDSR report, "Sometimes,
the small amounts of chemical remaining in the soil or water that take
a long time to break down are still toxic to some animals and possibly
to humans."

In February 2002,
Beyond Pesticides and fifteen national and statewide public interest
groups filed
a petition with the EPA to stop the reregistration of creosote for
wood treatment and push for the suspension and subsequent cancellation
of creosote. The heavy wood preservative is still under
review by the agency, but a current "preliminary”
risk assessment released by the agency describes excessively high
worker risks and confirms health effects (including cancer) that have
been known to the agency, the wood preservative industry, and the scientific
community for more than 20 years. For more information on creosote and
other heavy wood preservatives go to Beyond
Pesticides’ Wood Program page.

TAKE
ACTION: (1) If you are concerned about the handling of
the clean up of the former creosote wood preservative plant in Picayune,
MS, contact Leavern Guy, the
City Councilman of the relevant Picayune district. A town hall meeting
to discuss the issue is scheduled for today, Friday February 26, 2004.
Contact the City
of Picayune for more information.

(2) This problem
and many like it could be avoided if the EPA would stop allowing the
reregistration of heavy wood preservatives like creosote, pentachlorophenol
and CCA for which safer alternatives exist. Please contact Mr. Micheal
Leavitt, EPA Administrator, by email,
phone: 202-564-4711, or fax: 202-501-1470 and let him know how you feel
about the agency forcing our communities to bear the burden of excessive
health risks and environmental contamination so that the wood preservative
industry can continue with business as usual.